The Passengers (Book #2)

ℑ𝔱 ℌ𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔢𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔖𝔬 𝔉𝔞𝔰𝔱

I sit up straight, coughing so hard it hurt my ribs. There's a hand patting my back, and voices, worried voices, all talking at once. My lungs burn.

I'm in my black sweats on the floor next to the bed, and Joohyuk and Seulgi are crouched next to me. Hyeri and Wendy stand above us. I'm shaking from shock, or shivering from cold; I'm not sure.

"What happened, Seulgi?" Wendy asks, wide-eyed.

"All I heard was the crash," Seulgi says. "And then she was like this, coughing and shivering on the floor."

"Suzy, can you talk? Can you tell us what happened?" Hyeri asks.

I wrap my arms around myself. My fingers are like icicles. "Someone pushed me over the railing. And then I don't know. I must have woken up."

"You dove off the bed without warning," Joohyuk says. "I only just managed to keep your head from striking the floor."

I repeat his words to the girls from between chattering teeth.

"We need to get you warm," Joohyuk says. He places my arms around his neck, puts one arm under my knees, and hoists me into the air. The girls take a step back.

Seulgi must understand Joohyuk's intentions, because she throws aside the covers so he can put me under them, "This shouldn't happen, right? Getting hurt there shouldn't mean getting hurt here."

"She shouldn't be able to take spoons, either," Wendy says.

Mary pulls at her hair nervously. "Did you get a look at the person who threw you over?"

Joohyuk tucks the covers over my shoulders, and I curl up. I rub my hands together for warmth. "No. It happened so fast."

Joohyuk paces at the end of the bed, looking pissed off.

"Did the memory spell work?" Seulgi asks.

"Only kind of. I was questioning myself and asking the other passengers weird things. And I wanted to remember something but I didn't know what."

Seulgi sits on the bed next to me. "Do you think your questions somehow angered someone?"

"Maybe? I mean, I did ask Bruce Ismay if it was safe to travel so fast and mentioned all the ice. That could definitely be perceived as a reference to the sinking. Maybe that made someone mad?"

"Hmmm," Wendy says. "Let's look into Ismay. And what about Hanna? Did you see her? Was anyone talking about her?"

I pull the covers a little tighter. "She was there this time, acting like the rest of them, the way I usually act when I'm there—as if she right where she belongs. She was happy and drinking tea with Mrs. Brown like everything was normal in the world."

"What does it mean that she vanished from here and showed up there?" Hyeri asks.

"I don't know. It's kind of the nature of that place. Everyone's in some happy fog. Also, I spoke to Sophie, whose last name is Cullin. We should look her up, too. Sophie said it was April thirteenth, and it's the ninth here. There's some thing strange happening there with time."

"So it's still before the sinking?" Seulgi asks.

"It seems that way."

"Also, I can't believe you got to drink tea with Margaret Brown,"  Hyeri says.

I smile at her and yawn.

Joohyuk stops pacing. "You cannot go back there after what just happened. We cannot risk it. If you fall asleep, I will wake you up every ten minutes."

"Believe me, I don't want to go back there, but how long can I realistically go without real sleep? A couple of days." I say.

"Then we will work faster," Joohyuk says, daring me to argue with him.